NETC Program Reference Document
Know your lane.
Know your class.
A plain-language guide to how India's electronic toll system classifies your vehicle — from the 20 mapper classes used at the plaza to the 7 tag classes printed on your FASTag.
What NETC is
To build out India's highway network, toll collection had to scale — which meant creating an automated, interoperable electronic tolling system across the country. IHMCL (Indian Highway Management Company Ltd.) maintains National Highways on behalf of NHAI, and was tasked with implementing Electronic Toll Collection (NETC) at toll plazas nationwide.
NPCI was authorised to run the clearing and settlement layer that makes toll payments interoperable and secure. The goal: a non-stop toll regime where a FASTag-fitted vehicle passes through any plaza on the network without stopping to pay. The program went live on 3 December 2016 and has grown fast ever since.
Where the 20-vs-7 split comes from
FASTag itself began in 2013, a joint effort between IHMCL and ICICI Bank, at a time when most toll plazas ran their own proprietary systems. IHMCL's Interface Control Document (v2.4) standardised things — and it defines 20 mapper vehicle classes, matched by the acquiring bank at the time each plaza is integrated.
NHAI, separately, tolls by just 7 vehicle classes. So every plaza's master data sheet has to map its 20 mapper classes down to those 7 tag classes — which is exactly the mapping this page lays out.
Why the class on your windshield matters
Your RC copy lists gross weight. The toll plaza reads axles. When the two don't line up, the wrong tag gets issued — and that's where disputes start.
Axle count decides your toll class, but it isn't printed on the Registration Certificate — only gross vehicle weight is.
Issuer banks tag vehicles off the RC's GVW, while plazas toll strictly by axle — a mismatch that leads straight to customer disputes.
No official GVW is defined for 7-axle-and-above trucks, earth movers, or heavy construction machinery.
A documented "LCV – 3 Axle" category has no defined GVW anywhere, and no such vehicle has been observed on the program to date.
Three terms worth knowing
The classification system rests on three definitions — get these straight and the rest follows.
NETC Mapper
A repository of NETC Tag IDs maintained by NPCI. The NETC Switch uses it to route transactions to member banks. Toll fare is ultimately calculated from the mapper vehicle class — 20 types in all.
Tolling Category
The class actually printed on your FASTag, based on the tolling categories used at National Highway plazas. There are 7 — and both the issuer and the plaza system read this number directly off the tag.
Gross Vehicle Weight Rating
The maximum operating weight a manufacturer rates a vehicle for — chassis, body, engine, fluids, fuel, accessories, driver, passengers and cargo, combined. This is the figure printed on your RC.
All 20 mapper classes
Every vehicle on the network is first sorted into one of these — this is the list a bank works from when a plaza gets integrated.
The 7 tag classes
Every vehicle that carries a FASTag falls into one of these seven classes. Each one bundles together vehicle types that share a toll rate.
No FASTag applicable
These vehicle types sit outside the toll-collection net entirely — no tag is issued for them at all.
About this reference. Compiled from the FASTag Issuance Vehicle Classification document circulated under the NETC program (NHAI / IHMCL / NPCI), covering the Interface Control Document v2.4 mapper classes, the 7 NHAI toll classes, and GVW / axle bands per MoRTH Notification S.O. 728(E), dated 18.10.1996. Where GVW is not officially notified (7+ axle, earth-moving and heavy construction machinery), classification follows axle count and vehicle type instead. Vehicle photographs are for illustration only.